The Grim Sleeper (2014) Dreama Walker, Macy Gray, Dinora Walcott, Michael O'Neill, Ernie Hudson, Brendan Fletcher, Susan Ruttan, John Cassini Movie Review

The Grim Sleeper (2014)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Dreama Walker in The Grim Sleeper (2014)

A Little Grim

Christine Pelisek (Dreama Walker - Compliance) works as a fact checker for the LA Weekly but is determined to become a journalist. It is why, after visiting her friend, Morales (Brendan Fletcher - Hannah's Law), down at the morgue, that she learns that there has been a series of unsolved murders over the last 20 years. Determined to try and find a link she realises that there is a connection between some of these murders, which are still going on, and the police have been keeping the connection a secret. As soon as it comes out that there is a serial killer targeting African American girls and that the police have kept this information quiet it causes some unrest but also leads to Pelisek working with both the community and also Detective Simms (Michael O'Neill - Dallas Buyers Club) to catch the killer who has been nicknamed "The Grim Sleeper".

When it comes to movies made about true crimes, and in this case a real serial killer, "The Grim Sleeper" is one of those which is entertaining but nothing more than routine, ending up lacking any depth to tell the audience anything which they probably didn't already know from watching the news or reading the papers. That means for those who decide to watch "The Grim Sleeper" hoping to learn more about the serial killer's motive and modus operandi there is a chance you will be disappointed. But for those just looking for some easy to watch crime drama, well it is okay but nothing out of the ordinary.

Michael O'Neill in The Grim Sleeper (2014)

The thing about "The Grim Sleeper" is that for the most this feels like a routine drama where we have the plucky Pelisek digging into past crime reports and discovering links which connect a series of historic unsolved murders to current ones. We see how the police don't welcome her interference and of course how she ends up in danger after receiving threats herself. As I said it is routine and none of it really tells you anything about the real Grim Sleeper from what their motive was to why they did things in a certain way. Instead what we get is a look at the racial tension which grew out of this situation as the targets were African American girls and the police never made it public or told the victim's relatives what was going on. Yes this is an interesting side but lacks the bite of realism to make it feel anything more than just scenes involving extras standing outside a police station waving placards.

What this all boils down to is that "The Grim Sleeper" is a pretty typical made for TV movie about a true crime which fails to really dig in to what the motives were and just dramatises the known facts in an easy to watch manner.


LATEST REVIEWS